DIRECTV VS. COMCAST
Comcast filed suit in
federal court in Chicago,
charging that Direc TV is
falsely advertising its
exclusive NFL Sunday
Ticket package as “free.”
AdAge.com/news ➜
WHAT’S THAT SMELL?
Old Spice is once again
tearing up the viral video
charts, but is the duel
between Fabio and Isaiah
Mustafa moving product
off the shelves?
AdAge.com/digital ➜
SHOWS ABOUT PAWNSHOPS
with what works: stealing their competitors’shows
audience.
But getting bigger and getting
younger is tough. Just ask CBS. With
an average viewer age of 56, CBS has
known its audience for decades and
has a very good sense of what works
and what won’t. MTV, on the other
hand, has been very successful at getting big and staying young, but that
means a lot of guesswork—and also
knowing what worked today probably
won’t on the next generation of 20-
somethings.
The easiest, cheapest way to accomplish this is to just grab what worked
for someone else. A&E, for example, is
10 years older than it was when it was
airing syndicated scripted dramas.
“Pawn Stars” is routinely the top show
on cable and often beats broadcast
competition. The pie of ad dollars isn’t
growing, and now that 91% of the
country subscribes to pay TV, the pie of
viewers isn’t growing much, either,
meaning the easiest way to get another network’s viewers is to bogart its
format.
“They will do anything that
expands the brand and brings in view-
ers. But they are fighting amongst
themselves for the same viewers,” said
Brad Adgate, VP-research at Horizon
Media.
NOKIA, W&K SPLIT
Nokia and its global
agency of record Wieden &
Kennedy, London, are
going their separate ways.
The marketer will no
longer use the AOR model.
AdAge.com/agencynews➜
PROMOTED TWEET FAIL
What happens when a
marketer’s $120,000
promoted tweet ends up
running next to trending
topics like Hitler or songs
about rape?
AdAge.com ➜
ALL OF THESE THINGS
ARE JUST LIKE THE
OTHER ONES:
Center, “Pawn
Stars.” Clockwise,
from top left:
Discovery’s “Auction
Kings” and
“Oddities,” HGTV’s
“Cash & Cari,” Tru’s
“Storage Hunters,”
“Big Brian the
Fortune Seller” and
“Hardcore Pawn,”
NBC’s “It’s Worth
What?,” Spike’s
“Auction Hunters,”
SyFy’s “Haunted
Collector” and
“Hollywood
Treasures,” TLC’s
“Pawn Queens” and
“Auctioneers,”
National Geographic
Channel’s “Auction
Packed” and “Flea
Man.”
A prepaid card
good for ...
one full-size
frozen pizza?
Sampling alternative
could give rise to new
categories, reduced fraud
■ BY JACK NEFF jneff@adage.com
The pace at
which new
programs
and
concepts
are copied
and
devoured
has clearly
sped up, and
it’s no secret
why:
advertising.
YOUNG AMERICA, the Minnesota pro-motion-services company that has long
been the locus for countless rebate-form
submissions—among other things—is
joining with Citi Prepaid Services to create a new wrinkle in product sampling:
prepaid cards redeemable for full-size
product samples at stores.
The idea is to open up sampling
alternatives for product categories such
as frozen foods, over-the-counter drugs
and laundry detergent, where it’s either
impossible or impractical to send samples
through the mail or
insert them into
newspapers, said
Mark Lockwood, senior VP-payment services for Young
America.
The prepaid cards
are programmed to
be redeemable only
for specific SKUs and
only up to the price of
the item, Mr. Lockwood said. One
advantage of using cards over using
paper coupons for the same purpose is
reducing the risk of redemption fraud,
since such high-value coupons present a
more tempting target than typical cents
or dollar-off coupons. The novelty of
getting a prepaid card vs. a coupon
should also help the offer stand out, he
said.
Other advantages include not having to pay to ship full items to homes,
not having to manufacture a special
sample size and the potential for tying
sampling programs to shopper-market-ing programs that can induce retailers to
stock and prominently display the featured products, he said.
“People are creatures of habit,” Mr.
Lockwood said, so it also can pay to have
them find the product on the store shelf
so they’ll know where to look next time,
as opposed to just having a sample show
up in the mail.
While couponing has been on the
upswing in recent years, packaged-
The prepaid
cards are set
uponly for
specific
SKUs and
only up to
the price of
the item.
SELF-REGULATION
OR SELF-DELUSION?
Bob Garfield writes: “Internet
publishers, advertisers and
agencies will face the wrath of the
United States Senate. Broken
industry promises about
safeguarding consumer privacy
online will yield demands for
legislative and regulatory
remedies, putting at grave risk the
fragile business models
undergirding the digital economy.
And no wonder. The industry has
demonstrated yet again that it
cannot be trusted.”
AdAge.com/garfield
RANCECRAIN Editorinchief
rcrain@crain.com
DAVID S. KLEIN Publishing/editorialdirector
dklein@crain.com
ALLISON P. ARDEN Vicepresident,publisher
aarden@adage.com
JACKIEGHEDINE Associatepublisher
jghedine@adage.com
HOW TO CONTACT EDITORIAL
Abbey Klaassen Editor
aklaassen@adage.com
Judann Pollack Executiveeditor
jpollack@adage.com
Ken Wheaton Managingeditor
kwheaton@adage.com
212-210-0243
212-210-0458
212-210-0761
ADVER TISING, SPONSORSHIP &
INSIGH T SALES
SALES MARKETING
Kerri Ross Director,SalesMarketing
kross@adage.com 212-210-0160
INSIGHTS
Lisa Scotto Director,Partnerships
lscotto@adage.com 212-210-0104
MARKETING & EVENTS
Angela Carola Director
acarola@adage.com 212-210-0407
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
John LaMarca Director,audiencedevelopment
jlamarca@adage.com 212-210-0149
Subscriber services: 1-877-320-1721, fax (212) 210-0465,
outside U.S.: 1-313-446-0450,
e-mail: customerservice@adage.com
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
ADAGE.COM: AdAgeEditor@adage.com.
FOR SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION &
DELIVERY CONCERNS: please email
customerservice@adage.com or call
877-320-1721 (in the U.S. and Canada) or
313-646-0450 (all other locations)
ADVERTISING: (212) 210-0171,
CLASSIFIED: 1-800-248-1299
LIBRARY SERVICES: (312) 649-5329
NEWS OFFICES:
New York (212) 210-0100,
Chicago (312) 649-5200,
London +44 (0) 794-123-7761
REPRINTS:
Laura Picariello
lpicariello@crain.com , 732-723-0569
Contents copyright 2011 by Crain Communications Inc. All
rights reserved.
Advertising Age (ISSN 0001-8899) Vol 82, No. 29Published week-
ly, except the first and third week of July, the first, third, and fifth
week of August, and the fourth week of November by Crain
Communications Inc. at 360 N. Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60601
- 3806. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago and additional mailing
offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Advertising Age,
Audience Development Department, 1155 Gratiot Avenue,
Detroit, Mich. 48207-2912. $3.99 a copy, $149 a year in the U.S.
In Canada: $5.00 a copy, $199 per year, includes GST. Europe and
Mexico $349, all other countries $419, includes a one-year sub-
scription and expedited air delivery. “Canadian Post International
Publications Mail Product (Canadian Distribution) Sales
Agreement No. 40012850” GST #136760444. Canadian return
address: 4960-2 Walker Road, Windsor, ON N9A6J3. Printed in
U.S.A. Four weeks’ notice required for change of address. Address
all subscription correspondence to Audience Development
Department, Advertising Age, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit,
Mich. 48207-2912 1-888-288-5900. Microfilm copies are available
from University Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, Mich.
48103. Microfiche copies are available from Bell & Howell, Micro
Photo Division, Old Mansfield Rd., Wooster, Ohio 44691. Ad Age
is available for electronic retrieval on the NEXIS® Service (800
227-4908) and Dow Jones & Co. (800 522-3567).
